The Mediterranean countries are experiencing important challenges related to the water cycle including water shortages and floods, extreme winds and ice/snow storms that impact critically the socioeconomic vitality in the area (causing damage to property; threatening lives; affecting the energy and transportation sectors, etc.). There are gaps in our understanding of the Mediterranean water cycle and its dynamics, which include the variability of the Mediterranean Sea water budget and its feedback on the variability of the continental precipitation through air/sea interactions, the impact of precipitation variability on aquifer recharge, river discharge, soil water content and vegetation characteristics specific of the Mediterranean basin and the mechanisms that control the location and intensity of heavy precipitating systems which often produce floods. The HyMeX (Hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment) programme is a 10-year concerted experimental effort at the international level aiming at advancing the scientific knowledge of the water cycle variability in all compartments (land, sea and atmosphere) and at various time and spatial scales. It also aims at improving the processes-based models needed for forecasting hydro-meteorological extremes and the models of the regional climate system for predicting regional climate variability and evolution. It finally aims at assessing the social and economic vulnerability to hydrometeorological natural hazards in the Mediterranean and the adaptation capacity of the territories and populations therein to provide support to policy makers to cope with water related problems under the influence of climate change, by linking scientific outcomes with related policy requirements. Leer más de esta entrada

We analyse the recent evolution of fires in Catalonia (north-eastern Iberian Peninsula), a typical Mediterranean region. We examine a homogeneous series of forest fires in the period 1970–2010. During this period, more than 9000 fire events greater than 0.5 ha were recorded, and the total burned area was more than 400 kha. Our analysis shows that both the burned area and number of fire series display a decreasing trend. Superposed onto this general decrease, strong oscillations on shorter time scales are evident. After the large fires of 1986 and 1994, the increased effort in fire prevention and suppression could explain part of the decreasing trend. Although it is often stated that fires have increased in Mediterranean regions, the higher efficiency in fire detection could have led to spurious trends and misleading conclusions.

The contribution presents the database on floods (1981-2010) that is being developed in the framework of HYMEX project and the preliminary results obtained for the NW sector of Mediterranean region. This database contains data on damages and the main hydrometeorological features of each reported event. The study is included in one of the objectives of the Working Group 5, which is a transversal group of the HYMEX project dealing with all the aspects related to societal and ecological impacts of hydrometeorological extremes, as well as their perception and communication processes. One of the main points of the WG5 is the creation of a common database on floods and their societal impact, for the Mediterranean region, as well as its analysis. Although some databases already exist and are frequently consulted, they are mainly focused on “major” catastrophic events. But the Mediterranean region experiences every year a high number of minor flash-floods that, considered in their totality, produce important losses and disruptions of the everyday life. This contribution is focused on North-Eastern Spain, South of Italy and South-East of France and the objective is to include all the floods that have produced damages, although they are not considered as “major” disasters. Leer más de esta entrada